Local Editor

Medical facilities in Yemen are being ‘deliberately’ attacked, with some 100 incidents reported since the Saudi-led coalition began its aggression in March, the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] said. 

A Saudi-led coalition backed by the United States has been carrying out a military aggression by launching airstrikes against Yemen since March 26. The airstrikes have not been authorized by the United Nations [UN].

"Close to a hundred ...incidents have been reported since March 2015", ICRC said in a statement, condemning the shelling of the Al-Thawra medical hospital in Taiz on Sunday. ICRC said that Al-Thawra hospital in Yemen’s third largest city of Taiz was shelled on Sunday, weeks after Saudi-led airstrikes hit a hospital run by medical charity Doctors Without Borders/ Medecins Sans Frontieres [MSF] in the north.

"Al-Thawra hospital, one of the main health care facilities in Taiz which is providing treatment for about 50 injured people every day, was reportedly shelled several times on Sunday", it said.

"The shelling endangered the lives of patients and staff on site", the ICRC deputy head in Yemen, Kedir Awol Omar, said. 

The Red Cross said that there have been "close to a hundred similar" accidents reported since March, when the Saudi-led coalition launched an air aggression in Yemen. 

"Health facilities are deliberately attacked and surgical and medical supplies are also being blocked from reaching hospitals in areas under siege", Omar further said.

Just last month [October], Saudi-led air strikes hit the Hayadeen hospital run near the city of Saada in northern Yemen, with MSF posting pictures on its Twitter account showing a collapsed roof and rubble.

MSF said that there were no deaths, but rights group Amnesty International [AI] reported at the time that seven staff members were wounded.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon later denounced the air strikes which he said were carried out by warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition.

The ICRC said that attacks on health facilities are "a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law", and deplored the health situation in Taiz.

Moreover, the organization said that it has been trying to deliver medical supplies to Taiz for nearly two months, "but to no avail".